Agenda item - Ofsted Inspection

Verbal Update on any Ofsted Inspections held since the last meeting of the Committee

69.1    The Head of Standards Achievements Education and Inclusion provided an update of schools that had undergone an Ofsted inspection since the last meeting of the Committee.

69.2    The Committee were advised that Cardinal Newman RC Secondary School had recently been inspected, with Ofsted rating the school as ‘Requires Improvement’; the previous inspection had rated the school as ‘Good’. Ofsted had made a number of recommendations including, that the school ‘improve attendance and reduce truancy’ and ‘close quickly the gaps between disadvantaged pupils and their peers and other pupils nationally’. The school said they were disappointed with the rating, but would now create and implement a school improvement plan to ensure that all the areas of concern were addressed.

69.3    Councillor Barradell said the results of the inspection were disappointing, but it was good that steps were already in place to address the issues raised, and asked that the Committee monitor progress made.

69.4    Councillor Taylor agreed that the outcome wasn’t good, but said that it was useful to know which areas needed to be improved and was pleased that the school were already engaged in dealing with issues raised.

69.5    Mr Jones noted that no secondary schools in the city were rated as ‘Outstanding’, and hoped that there would be a drive to get all schools to that level.

69.6    Ms Mortensen said that the GCSE results at the school were very good, but closing the gap between pupils was also important and was pleased that the school would now be addressing that.

69.10  The Assistant Director Education and Inclusion said the Ofsted report was disappointing but the Council would be working with the school on an improvement plan. Ofsted would come back to look at the improvement plans and a progress report would come to the Committee once that had been done.

69.11  The Chair said that in future he would like a representative from a school, who had undergone an Ofsted inspection, to be invited to attend the Committee meeting when the report was discussed.

69.12  RESOLVED: That the update be noted.